Category: Music

My Dragon, The Tetralogy: Part 2, My Dragon – The Revival.

Yesterday, Geelong Cereal published the second part of my dragon series, My Dragon, The Tetralogy: Part 2, My Dragon – The Revival.
Geelong Cereal is a free online magazine showcasing local writing and creative arts, with a special love for serial fiction and stories from the Geelong region. It’s a welcoming space for writers at every stage of their creative journey, and I’m delighted that my dragon has found a home there.
A heartfelt thank‑you to Mel, Geelong Cereal’s editor, whose care and encouragement helped bring this latest chapter to life.
>> My Dragon, The Tetralogy: Part 2. My Dragon, The Revival

Below is the image of the poem as it appeared in the magazine.

With Dragon’s Young Years drifting through my headphones, I returned to the world of my dragon. The song’s gentle reflections on the passage of time felt like an appropriate soundtrack for a tale of revival and second beginnings.



Ivor Steven © October 2026

Successfully Unsuccessful

Does a bird measure the success of its flight, or simply fly? After a moderately successful day at the market, I carried that question home. Sometime during the night, it became a poem.






Successfully Unsuccessful


Am I unsuccessfully successful
or
Successfully unsuccessful?

What is successful?
Why be successful?
Who defines success?

Is being successful?
simply being successful
at being unsuccessful?
or
being a failure at being unsuccessful?

Is Corporate greed being successful?
or
self-righteousness being unsuccessful?

What is successful?
Who defines success?




As the magpie continues its flight…
The poem ends here. The questions do not.




Ivor Steven © October 2026

Nature’s Pink Matinee (a Tanka)

Another pink twilight this evening reminded me of a tanka I drafted some months ago. As the colours gathered across the western sky, it seemed the perfect time to finally share it.


And here are last evening’s twilight photos





Nature’s Pink Matinee (a Tanka)

A pink twilight sky
We, the fortunate witnesses
Stand here wondering
Why nature’s matinee shows
Are never on earth sold out






Tonight’s audience may have been small, but nature’s performance was unforgettable. 🎵🌸



Ivor Steven ©  October 2026

Throwback Friday, Our Last Stand

This is a poem I haven’t seen since writing it in October 2019. Today, as is my way, I’ve made a few small revisions, but the essence of the original remains intact.




Our Last Stand (Revised)

Crawling over barren pastures of land,
On detergent feet and hands,
Old arms are now empty of nature’s seeds,
I only see future investment greed.

And history’s lessons are hard to understand,
When we’re taught disrespect by corporate bands,
Who only extinguish life into grains of sand,
Instead of regenerating our planet’s last stand






Originally written in 2019 and revisited today, Our Last Stand finds a fitting companion in Archive’s haunting Again, a song that echoes the poem’s reflective mood and enduring message.


.


Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >>  Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)



Perceptions:

Amazon >>  Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >>  Perceptions (lulu.com)



Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books


OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com … and I can send you a PayPal invoice
for the Book, plus Postage.



Ivor Steven ©  October 2026

Creative Geelong Market Day, This Saturday, October 17th

It’s Market Day this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
* Our popular monthly markets are all undercover at Centrepoint Arcade on the third Saturday of every month.
* They feature art, unique goods from local makers, second-hand goods, plants, books, and more.
* There are also open art studios, Yesterday Vintage, Untether Gallery, and the May’d Shop. 

All at, Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
From 10 am to 3 pm

And I’ll be there with ‘Frankie’ and my “New Bookstall Set-up“






Ivor Steven ©  October 2026

Presiding (a Haiku)

Some poems arrive quickly, while others rest patiently in the drafts. After a quiet wait of a few weeks, this haiku seemed ready to take its place among recent reflections on nature and birds.





Presiding (a Haiku)


Here I calmly be
Overseeing twilight time
The day’s final stand





Today’s haiku is accompanied by Glen Hansard’s beautiful live performance of “Her Mercy”, a song that seemed to share the poem’s quiet patience and reflective spirit.



Ivor Steven ©  October 2026

Nature’s Wings

Watching birds in flight, I am often struck by their grace and seeming freedom from the burdens we humans create for ourselves. Inspired by a series of bird photographs, this poem begins with nature’s gifts before quietly turning its gaze towards a troubled world below.





Nature’s Wings

Birds have wondrous wings
and can also sprightly sing

Birds’ lovely lightweight feathers
can glide and hover forever

Birds have perceptive eyes
and do not criticise or demonise

Birds possess sensitive ears
and escape the world’s warring fears

Birds shun the battered ground
while eyes still hear that shattered sound





While shaping this poem at the café, I heard “Lift” by Marisa Anderson and felt this gentle melody drifting on the same wings that inspired today’s poem.



Ivor Steven ©  October 2026

Coffee House Writers Magazine features my new poem, “A Bird of the Sun”


Hello, dear readers and followers. I contribute to Coffee House Writers Magazine (USA) every second week, and I’m delighted to share that my latest poem, “A Bird of the Sun,” appears in the new issue. You can read it by following the link below.
>> A Bird of the Sun – Coffee House Writers






And as this song unfurls its quiet wings, may it carry you into the same bright drift where my poem first took flight.


.


Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >>  Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)



Perceptions:

Amazon >>  Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >>  Perceptions (lulu.com)



Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books


OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com … and I can send you a PayPal invoice
for the Book, plus Postage.



Ivor Steven ©  October 2026

High Hopes

Over the past week, I’ve found myself looking skyward more often than usual. Between writing, photography, and preparing a recent radio article, air, light, and freedom have kept weaving through my thoughts.
Then, after all the planning and concentration had passed, this poem arrived unannounced. Inspired by a dragonfly dancing beneath a bright spring sky, High Hopes felt less like a piece I wrote and more like an exhale after a long creative stretch.





High Hopes


I’m whirring and whizzing around
beneath a gentle blue shroud
between the wispy white clouds,
and Earth’s swampy ground.

The sun’s radiant rays are catching my eye,
dazzling enough to make me joyfully cry.
My wings are glossily glimmering
as I zoom and dance from tree to tree,
sprightly laughing and wishing
the whole world could feel my glee,
and wistfully inherit and occupy
all the freedom which surrounds me.





After completing this poem and reflecting on an unexpectedly creative few days, this song arrived from my brother at exactly the right moment. Sometimes the universe knows the closing line before we do.


“High hopes written,
spring sunlight captured,
the dragonfly released,
and now… breathe.“



Ivor Steven ©  October 2026